"By this time they'd firebombed my car. We'd no way to get out at all."
Police say they came close to being overwhelmed by violent clashes which left 120 officers injured and saw 36 arrested.
Up to 1,000 youths hurled bricks, bottles and petrol bombs at police in the Manningham area of the West Yorkshire city.
The trouble flared after an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against the National Front on Saturday.
He added: "Whatever the provocation from outside the area, it is overwhelmingly local people who have damaged their own community and its future."
Assistant Chief Constable Greg Wilkinson, of West Yorkshire Police, admitted police were surprised by the ferocity of the violence.
But he rejected suggestions that it had been allowed to escalate.
"When faced with rioting you can't just click your fingers and stop it," he said.
Gangs
Police chiefs have promised to track down all those involved in the riot, which saw gangs of Asian and white youths fighting running battles with police.
Officers were pelted with bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and fireworks, and attacked with baseball bats and hammers.
Police said of the 36 people arrested - 13 white and 23 Asian - all but two were from the Bradford area.
Many officers were treated in hospital for head wounds, although only one was detained, with a severe foot injury. Two police horses were also wounded.
Two people were stabbed, cars were set on fire and other vehicles were repeatedly driven at the police lines.
'No way out'
Fire crews are still damping down at the Manningham Labour Club, which was torched on Saturday night.
Landlord Roy Glister, who said he had lost everything, described how 28 terrified drinkers inside were lucky to escape with their lives.
"All the windows were smashed and then they firebombed it," he said. "We locked ourselves in the cellar and waited for the fire brigade."
"By this time they'd firebombed my car. We'd no way to get out at all."
Mohammed Amran, of the Commission for Racial Equality, was shocked at the scale of the violence.
"No one expected this sort of trouble on this scale," he said. "It has destroyed Bradford."
Appealing for residents to avoid further trouble, he added: "Businesses have suffered and enough is enough."
Summer violence
Bradford is the latest northern town to suffer race rioting this summer.
Oldham and Burnley have both had serious incidents but the trouble in Manningham is on a much more serious scale.
Bradford, with an Asian population of about 100,000, has a history of good relations between different ethnic groups.
This week, Mr Blunkett granted the police special powers to ban marches and outdoor meetings in Bradford until 27 September.
But tension flared on Saturday amid reports that members of the National Front still planned to demonstrate.
The Anti-Nazi League held a counter-demonstration in Centenary Square attended by about 500 people, mainly Asian men.
Witnesses said the violence appeared to have started when a group of white men emerged from a pub and hurled racist abuse at the crowd.